Francis Parkman: France and England in North America, Volume 1

France and England in North America

by Francis Parkman

This Library of America volume, along with its companion, incorporates, for the first time in compact form, all seven titles of Francis Parkman’s monumental account of France and England’s imperial struggle for dominance on the North American continent. Parkman conceived the project in 1841, when he was a Harvard sophomore, and persisted in it despite chronic disorders that affected his eyes. The last volume of what he called his “history of the American forest” appeared almost thirty years after the first. Deservedly compared as a literary achievement to Gibbon’s The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Parkman’s accomplishment is hardly less awesome than the explorations and adventures he so vividly describes. His own indomitable spirit is reflected in two of the history’s most fiercely resolute figures: La Salle, obsessed with colonizing the Mississippi Valley, and Frontenac, determined to bolster France’s tottering position in the New World. He tells a story of great empires maneuvering in an unfamiliar and hostile terrain with all the guile, sophistication, and ingenuity learned from centuries of European rivalry.

Pioneers of France in the New World (1865) begins with the early and tragic settlement of the French Huguenots in Florida, then shifts to the northern reaches of the continent and follows the expeditions of Samuel de Champlain up the St. Lawrence River and into the Great Lakes as he mapped the wilderness, organized the fur trade, promoted Christianity among the natives, and waged a savage forest campaign against the Iroquois.

The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century (1867) traces the zealous efforts of the Jesuits and other Roman Catholic orders to convert the Native American tribes of North America. Jean de Brébeuf, Isaac Jogues, Marguerite Bourgeoys, Marie de l’Incarnation, and Joseph Bressani represent only a few of that resolute company, many of whom suffered captivity, torture, and martyrdom in the far corners of the wilderness.

La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West (1869) records that explorer’s voyages on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and his treks, often alone, across the vast western prairies and through the labyrinthine swamps of Louisiana. Although he won the respect and admiration of the Native Americans, La Salle often distrusted and alienated his associates. He survived two attempts to poison him before he was finally assassinated by his own men in a lonely Texas outpost.

The Old Régime in Canada (1874) recounts the political struggles among the religious sects, colonial officials, feudal chiefs, royal ministers, and military commanders of Canada. Their bitter fights over the monopoly of the fur trade, the sale of brandy to the natives, the importation of wives from the orphanages and poorhouses of France, and the bizarre fanaticism of religious extremists and their “incessant supernaturalism” animate this pioneering social history of early Canada.

Parkman’s chronicle of nearly two and a half centuries of conflict will permanently transform our image of the American landscape. Written with verve, suppleness, and wit, this grand narrative history of political and theological conflict, of feats of physical endurance, of courtly manners practiced with comic disproportion against the backdrop of a looming wilderness, is itself one of the still-undiscovered treasures of our national and of world literature.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Classics, Canada, American, 19th Century

1504 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 1983

About the author

Francis Parkman was an American historian.

He is best known as author of The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life and his seven-volume France and England in North America. These works are still valued as historical sources and as literature. He was also a leading horticulturist, briefly a Professor of Horticulture at Harvard University and author of several books on the topic.

Parkman was a trustee of the Boston Athenæum from 1858 until his death in 1893.

Reviews

[Missy LeBlanc Ivey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m not sure where or when I got this 1899 edition, but it has been sitting on my bookshelf now for quite a few years. I’m not really a history buff, but I was thinking this read would add to my knowledge of Acadian history, from which I descend. But, as it turns out, this book mentioned only one instance of the Acadian people, and, of course, it was biased and incomplete: “In the next century [1690], some of the people of Acadia were torn from their homes by order of a British commander. The act was harsh and violent, and the innocent were involved with the guilty; but many of the sufferers had provoked their fate, and deserved it." (p. 190)

I didn’t find this book interesting at all and would have given it a one star, but I did give it the extra star because the author did not write in a pretentious manner at all. I could actually understand what I was reading.

This history was more about several governors, mainly Governor Frontenac, and Quebec and their relationships with the Indians and warring for territory against the new colony governors of New York and Massachusetts around the Great Lakes, and a little bit about their struggle for New England territory, especially Maine.

To remember Frontenac, he must have personally been a real ass. He and his wife never lived together. He showed up unannouced one evening in front of friends and asked for her company that evening, but she ran off crying and went into hysterics. She couldn't be consoled and they had to send for holy water to exorcise her.

She stayed back in the homeland country while he governed over Quebec in New France. When he died in 1698, he requested his heart be sent back to her in a silver box, but she refused it. She stated that if she couldn't have his heart in life, then what makes him think she wanted it in death?

He was a selfish and greedy governor, although respected by the natives. He befriended the natives and provided them with whiskey, arms and ammo in exchange for first rights to pelt trading, all in secrecy to advance his own coffers. The clergy and priests despised him. If anyone were to ever go against him and his words, they were thrown into prison, sometimes for months. He didn't care who you were. He quarreled with everyone so much that the king finally recalled him back to France for a few years. But, he was eventually sent back to governor over Quebec again to regain control and stability that had been lost while he was gone. It was this kind of ruling and experienced personality that was needed to win the battle over Quebec against the British from Massachusetts of the new colony. He regained a lot of respect, except, of course, from the clergies and priests. They just never got along because he was constantly in their business trying to tell them how to run things.

I guess old Frontenac was getting up there in age towards the end and still fighting wars. At one point, the Indian warriors actually carried him in a chair to fight a war, and, at the same time, the governor of Montreal, Callieres, disabled with gout, was mounted on a horse and carried to war. (p. 412) Now, imagine that! You sure wouldn't see that today.

The wars couldn’t have been won without the Indians. The Abenakis, a loose term for many tribes, sided with the French. And the Iroquois, the largest tribe and most untrustworthy and savage carnivores, sided mostly with the British. All tribes would usually be loyal to the one who continuously offered the largest purse of arms, ammunition, clothing and food to go into battle with them. They had no loyalty to any one nation because, truthfully, the French and the British, both used, lied to and abused their relationship with all the Indian tribes.

The author chose to center most of the reader’s attention on the abuse done by the French, but we know this went both ways. As the newly Christianized French Indians pillaged, tortured, scalped, chopped up and ate their prisoners of war, mainly avenging the Iroquois’s, a Canadian writer wrote, “It was the commission of Canada to propagate Christianity and civilization.” It was all political! It was all about claiming new territories! It was all a means to an end. This went both ways. The French as well as the new British colony leaders were very persuasive.

One thing to keep in mind, the French had the support of their king back on the homeland, whereas, the new colonies who had separated from their king did not have the financial support of money or troops to go around lavishing all the tribes with monetary gifts and starting all these little wars like the French in Canada. Each state, especially Massachusetts, had to decide if it was worth more debt to go into war. In the battle for Quebec, Massachusetts sent a letter back to the British King, asking for financial and troop support since this battle would impact not only the new colony but also would prop up the British territory. They refused. Massachusetts ended up losing 50,000 pounds in this lost battle for Quebec. They returned home and their soldiers and sailors wanted their pay. And for the first time in history, paper currency was issued by the state of Massachusetts.

At other times, the British king would send over troops preparing for battle somewhere up along the St. Lawrence River and into Canada or Nova Scotia and ask that each colony submit a certain number of troops to help with their battle. Most of the time, troops would be rounded up, but maybe not in the numbers that were asked for. The people of the colonies didn’t want to be bothered with wars that were not their own and didn’t involve them. It was almost impossible to round up funds and troops until necessity forced them. But, a few of the upper states, such as New York, Massachusetts and Maine, the states that were almost always in self-defense against attacks, would usually comply and pitch in a few men because their future might depend on the support of the British king at some point.

In the end, shortly after Frontenac’s death in 1698, leaders of all the tribes were gathered together to pledge a truce and peace to each other. All tribes were to bring their prisoners of war captured over the years and set them free. They all complied except the Iroquois, who showed up empty handed and promised to set them free when they returned home. They ate, drank, and partied with all the leaders. The French governor shook hands on this promise, but the Iroquois never set free one single captive and never again gained the confidences of the French.

[Gary Land · Rating 5 out of 5]

Francis Parkman was one of the great romantic historians of the nineteenth century. This volume in the Library of America series collects four books, organized chronologically by subject matter, not by the order in which they were written. The first three works are quintessential Parkman, with graphic descriptions of the natural setting, deft characterizations of individuals, and colorful accounts of the native Americans. The fourth volume, because its subject matter is the government, society, and economy of 17th century Canada, while interesting, does not have the drama of the other works. Parkman holds the prejudices of his age, calling the Indians "savages" and comparing the Catholic French unfavorably with the Protestant English, but he remains essential reading for the history of this period. I look forward to reading the next volume.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though not a very valuable member of society, and though a thorn in the side of prices and rulers, the coureur de bois had his uses, at least from an artistic point of view; and his strange figure, sometimes brutally savage, but oftener marked with the lines of dare-devil courage, and a reckless, thoughtless gayety, will always be joined to the memories of that grand world of woods which the nineteenth century is fast civilizing out of existence. At least, he is picturesque, and with his red-skin companion serves to animate forest scenery. Perhaps he could sometimes feel, without knowing that he felt them, the charms of the savage nature that had adopted him. Rude as he was, her voice may not always have been meaningless for one who knew her haunts so well; deep recesses where, veiled in foliage, some wild shy rivulet steals with timid music through breathless caves of verdure; gulfs where feathered crags rise like castle walls, where the noonday sun pierces with keen rays athwart the torrent, and the mossed arms of fallen pines cast wavering shadows on the illumined foam; pools of liquid crystal turned emerald in the reflected green of impending woods; rocks on whose rugged front the gleam of sunlit waters dances in quivering light; ancient trees hurled headlong by the storm to dam the raging stream with their forlorn and savage ruin; or the stern depths of immemorial forests, dim and silent as a cavern, columned with innumerable trunks, each like an Atlas upholding its world of leaves, and sweating perpetual moisture down its dark and channelled rind; some strong in youth, some grisly with decrepit age, nightmares of strange distortion, gnarled and knotted with wens and goitres; roots intertwined beneath like serpents petrified in an agony of contorted strife; green and glistening mosses carpeting the rough ground, mantling the rocks, turning pulpy stumps to mounds of verdure, and swathing fallen trunks as bent in the impotence of rottenness, they lie outsretched over knoll and holow, like mouldering reptiles of the primeval world, while around, and on and through them, springs the young growth that battens on their decay, --the forest devouring its own dead. Or, to turn from its funereal shade to the light and life of the open woodland, the sheen of sparkling lakes, and mountains basking in the glory of the summer noon, flecked by the shadows of passing clouds that sail on snowy wings across the transparent azure.
Yet it would be false coloring to paint the half-savage coureur de bois as a romantic lover of nature....

[Timothy Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, so the jury is no longer out on this book. It's very good indeed. Perhaps one of the essential documents for understanding colonial America before the British put their indelible stamp on it. They were trying, but it's only at the end of the book that they begin succeeding. Before that it's the Spanish, then the French, especially the French. The battles among the European powers trying to stake their claim on the New World distracted them from the more important issue of relations with the people who were already here. Admittedly, that was no pure and flawless enterprise either, peppered as it was on both sides with deception, self-interest, manipulation, and betrayal. It's easy to say the Europeans exploited the Native Americans, but it's just as fair to say they were manipulated into involving themselves in inter-tribal wars for the benefit of those they were purportedly exploiting. There are no easy answers, and until we abandon the simplistic presentations given to us in our pre-teen schoolrooms, we will never understand the issues adequately. Maybe we never can. But one thing we can do is to approach the First Nations peoples as people and as neither victims nor opportunists. At this stage in our history, we need to be able to treat with one another as equals and with mutual respect.

Parkman inspires such thinking. While he's old style writing, and clearly Anglo-centric, he is also thorough and insightful concerning the inter-tribal relations of the Europeans involved. The religious issues: Spain as Catholic, England as Protestant, and France as a vacillating mix (though dominantly Catholic) recreates the same motivations for conflict the Europeans failed to leave behind, concerned as they were with politics back home.

Read Parkman if you have the temperament for old style writing and also to get a vision of our country before it was our country. The descriptions of the landscape, given by the botanist, are evocative of a fantasy novel. Except, of course for the mosquitoes.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A monumental achievement. The equivalent of Gibbon for the woods of North America. My only quibble is with the title of this LoA edition. I expected a history of "France and England in North America," but this is 90% France, 6% Spain, and 4% England. "A History of France in North America" would have been a much more accurate title, but then again, I wouldn't have bothered with a book about the French, so I'm not upset with this little deception. The question now is whether to dive into volume 2, or wait a year or two.

[Tammy Schilling · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely bigoted anti-Catholic, anti-Spanish clap trap. I had heard of things like this, but had never seen them in a supposedly serious source. Here is a sample:

"In the Europe, the sixteenth century, Spain was the incubus of Europe. Gloomy and portentous, she chilled the
world with her baneful shadow. Her old feudal liberties were gone, absorbed in the despotism of Madrid. A tyranny of monks and inquisitors, with their swarms of spies and inform- ers, their racks, their dungeons, and their fagots, crushed all freedom of thought or speech; and, while the Dominican held his reign of terror and force, the deeper Jesuit guided the mind from infancy into those narrow depths of bigotry from which it was never to escape. Commercial despotism was joined to political and religious despotism. The hands of the government were on every branch of industry. Perverse regulations, uncertain and ruinous taxes, monopolies, encour- agements, prohibitions, restrictions, cramped the national en- ergy. Mistress of the Indies, Spain swarmed with beggars. Yet, verging to decay, she had an ominous and appalling strength. Her condition was that of an athletic man pene- trated with disease, which had not yet unstrung the thews and sinews formed in his days of vigor. Philip the Second could command the service of warriors and statesmen developed in the years that were past. The gathered energies of ruined feu- dalism were wielded by a single hand. The mysterious King, in his den in the Escorial, dreary and silent, and bent like a scribe over his papers, was the type and the champion of ar- bitrary power. More than the Pope himself, he was the head of Catholicity. In doctrine and in deed, the inexorable bigotry of Madrid was ever in advance of Rome."

[Jerry Baird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another fine Parkman writing and especially interesting in review of the English and French Influence to the earliest settlements in Canada and the US. Love this period of our history with the color of exploration from the old world to the new. Anyone who in really interested in the real essence of early american exploration needs to cover Francis Parkman and his writings. One of our truly great American Authors and should be placed up there with the best of all time.

[James Violand · Rating 5 out of 5]

see review for second volume

[S.D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

History, and the conveyance thereof, does not remain in stasis; and for historians, the past affects and is affected by the present, as much as their predisposition affects its presentation. Its affect on the future, other than its role in preserving an historian’s legacy, is therefore largely disregarded. Parkman’s legacy rests on this seven-book history (the first four are in Vol. 1), but is confounded by his narrative recasting, which introduces a modicum of subjective flourish. As a comprehensive (albeit non-indigenous) retelling of France’s mostly forgotten role in North American colonialism from mostly forgotten sources, it is nevertheless an engrossing read, with enough accuracy to pique the objective mind’s interest for further study of this overlooked era.

[Ronala · Rating 5 out of 5]

First volume of collected works of Francis Parkman, a great 19th-century American historian, on the subject of French settlement and conflict in North America. This is an exhaustive history, beginning with the first attempted settlement of Hugenots in Florida in 1512 to just before the arrival of Frontenac in 1672. It closes with a lengthy, detailed discussion of political, social and economic conditions in French Canada up to 1763. The author's biases and preconceptions are always on display in these works, but his scholarship is so comprehensive, his writing so elegant, that one makes allowances and continues with his fascinating, often poetic, narrative.

[Rozzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warm baths are always taken one at a time. Nor do they individually last all that terribly long. Parkman's France and England in North America is a warm bath that lasts six months, or however long it may take you to finish both volumes, a total of pages. From me, this is praise. Very high praise. I love warm baths and Parkman's FEiNA was, for me, a wonderful experience. Yes, I like Macaulay too, and

[Martin Bihl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pioneers of France in the New World - finished 08/23/18

The Jesuits in North America - finished 11/07/19

LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West - finished 04/29/20

The Old Regime in Canada - finished 04/11/21

[Abdul]

I have learnt many things from this book and it's one of the best books I've ever read. The most thing i like about this book is the old english the author applys.

[zoomdoggies · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly entertaining history. It reads like a travelogue.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a break on this book and finishing the third of four sections. I found its narrative style very interesting and will eventually finish the entire book.